At first glance, Ellington Ratliff may seem like the odd man in the pop rock band R5. He’s the only one who’s not a member of the Lynch family – related to the famed dancing duo of Julianne and Derek Hough. He’s the only one with a first name that doesn’t begin with R (Riker, Rocky, Ross and Rydel make up the rest of the gang), and he’s the only bandmate not born and raised in Colorado. Instead, Ratliff was born out in Los Angeles.

"I definitely was peacemaker for a little bit, but after being with them for so long, the peacemaker hat comes off and you just become one of the family," he said. "So yeah, my peacemaker days are gone, and they’re super fun. They’re a fun bunch to be around."

While Ratliff is technically an L.A. native, R5’s upcoming stop Friday night at the Riverside Theater actually serves as a bit of a return home of sorts, as the drummer split much of his childhood between the West Coast and Wisconsin. OnMilwaukee.com got a chance to chat with Ratliff about his Sconnie days, being the lone non-Lynch in the group and life on the road. 

OnMilwaukee.com: I have heard that you are actually a Wisconsin native?

Ellington Ratliff: In a way. I was actually born in Los Angeles, but I have very close family – my grandparents – that live in a town west of Madison by about an hour – Avoca. So I spent pretty much every summer and winter there since I was little. So I’m not a native, but I’m practically a native.

OMC: Did you ever get to do any fun Wisconsin or Milwaukee traditions or events?

ER: I’ve been to a couple of the fairs. I’ve been to a Brewers game a couple of times, which is super fun. Spent time in Madison, went to the Dells … you know.

OMC: Obviously you are the lone non-family member in R5. How did you meet the family and get linked in with them?

ER: Well, I met the family at a performing arts studio in California. We were doing shows, dancing and singing and stuff like that for about a year. They knew that I was in another band – a high school garage band – and they knew that I played drums, so they said, "Do you want to jam?" So Ryker, Rocky and I had a jam session, and from then on, we added Rydel and Ross, and we started the band, playing shows around California.

OMC: It’s convenient that, for the sake of the name of the band, also starts with an R. 

ER: That is funny because actually, for a while, we were trying to think of R names to give me, like Ron or Ralph. Rydel, I think, came up and said, "Why don’t we just call you Ratliff? I mean, that is actually your name." So it’s kind of like a nickname, like in the military when they call you by your last name, like, "Johnson! Get over here!" So Ratliff. 

OMC: You were also on season five of "So You Think You Can Dance." What was that experience like?

ER: Yeah, a couple of us were actually. That was back at the performing arts studio. It was fun at the time, because we were younger – much younger. We’d all been on TV here or there, but it was cool being on a show like that, that was live. It was one of our first live TV experiences, which actually kind of trained us for things now like "GMA" and Jimmy Kimmel. It was kind of like a first taste of that life.

OMC: Is there any particular lesson or thing that you learned that sticks out?

ER: It’s just that you have to be spot on. When we did "GMA," you learn that you just have to be ready for whenever they say, "OK, you’re up." You have to just be prepared, because if you’re not, you’re going to be caught not ready, and that would be embarrassing on live TV.

OMC: This past year, you released your second full-length album, "Sometime Last Night." What was the thought process behind the record?

ER: Well, we didn’t really have any real prior thoughts; we had a first album – we had an album written and mastered and everything – and some timing issues came up, and we ended up scrapping it. Also, it didn’t really suit us as well as we wanted it to. So we really had to just come together; we got a house in California and started just writing in the garage with friends. When it was just the band and friends, we kind of wrote what we wanted to write, which ended up becoming a more mature sound. It’s more similar to the things we’re listening to now. It’s a natural progression I guess.

OMC: What about that first version of the second album wasn’t working for you guys?

ER: That had been written kind of right after "Louder" (the band's first album) was coming out and while we were touring, so come a year later, we’re looking at these songs. Some of them made it; "Smile" was on the original one, and "Lighting Strikes" was also on it. So some of the songs were definitely good, but you grow up quickly, especially at this age. So we just looked at the songs and thought, you know what, we can do better. So we tossed them.

OMC: What were some of those artists and songs that you were listening to that informed what you wanted to do with the second version of the album?

ER: We definitely drew from a lot of different songs, pretty much like everything we’ve ever listened to. I know there’s some Queen influence on songs like "I Know You Got Away" and a lot of old rock, because that’s what we grew up on, a little Electric Light Orchestra and things like that. Also new stuff like The 1975. They’re an awesome band. The Killers have always been a band favorite. Everything from alternative to classic rock to even hip-hop inspirations, because we would use drum samples on certain songs. So it was kind of just all of our influences into one dish, which is "Sometime Last Night."

OMC: I know you just released the new album, but are you already thinking about the next one?

ER: We definitely are. Me, Ross and Rocky have been trying to write on the road, just different things. We were trying to write for our baby brother Ryland, who’s a DJ, and a couple of artists have reached out to us so we’re trying to write for other people. It’s interesting writing on the road because you don’t have as much time as you want. When we were at our house in California, we could spend a whole day or hours on end, but on the road, we have to stop for sound check or we have a show or there’s a meet-and-greet. So it’s definitely challenging.

OMC: How is life on the road? Do you have any fun traditions or pranks or anything like that?

ER: Definitely. One that we’ve been actually lucky enough to do a lot on this tour, since we’ve been playing a lot of amphitheaters, is any time there’s a lawn, we’ll have lawn parties. We’ll go out with some drinks onto the lawn and just hang out with some lawn chairs. Sometimes the sprinklers go off because the venue forgets we’re out there, and that’s fun.